Putting Average People Into Heroic Situations

MKMMA WEEK 18: I AM What’s Wrong With The World Today

When G. Chesterton wrote an essay to respond to the question “What’s wrong with the world” he replied: Dear Sirs, I AM. When Tom Shadyac heard of his reply he wrote him and said “Bingo”.

This week’s blog is not for the faint of heart and is on the boundaries of controversial. After watching this documentary called “I AM” I asked myself the same question and replied in harmony with Chesterton…“I AM what’s wrong with the world today”.

To my friends who want to answer that question I recommend you keep reading my blog to the end…some of you will also need to answer the question “What am I pretending not to know?”. This week in the Master Keys Mastermind Alliance Experience course we were given the choice to watch 2 movies. One was “Finding Joe” and the other “I AM”. Both are equally brilliant. I have seen Finding Joe so I highly recommend you and your children watch it and after watching “I AM” there is no question you will want to watch it. I found it on Netflix.

Thomas Peter “Tom” Shadyac (cool name Tom so I like him already…lol) is an American comedian, director, screenwriter, producer, author and sometimes actor. I was shocked at his impressive resume. He was behind blockbuster hits such as Ace Ventura Pet Detective, the Nutty Professor, Patch Adams, Bruce Almighty, I AM. Or you may relate more to the actors that he made famous in these movies which included Jim Carey, Robin WIlliams, Steve Carrell. I am not enamoured by his Directing accomplishments, I am blown away by his story.

Tom was at the top of his career and had accumulated an empire of wealth when he faced a major life event that caused him to take a sharp turn into unknown territory, rethinking his priorities in his life. As I write his story, I draw comparisons to my own life. For those who know me, I am a Hero and took my Hero’s journey starting in 2007 to discover myself. My life was full of incredible success and wealth but incredible emptiness and sadness followed my heart everywhere I went. Like Tom, when I finally had a life changing moment I decided to become Heroic and change myself.

Tom’s story is of Mental Illness as he puts it. He suffered a bike fall and experienced post concussion syndrome, a broken arm and symptoms of pain, ringing in his head and more that he characterised as torture. For those who know of PCS you will realize that the symptoms can go on for a lifetime. Tom suggested that after 4 months of this he was ready to face death. When at that pivotal moment, he needed to become clear on his purpose and wanted to tell people what he knew, that the world he was living was a lie. The game that he had built his life around was supposed to heal the world, but he discovered it was most likely destroying it.

Tom’s PCS symptoms miraculously went away and that inspired him to take a crew of 4 cameramen and film his journey. He interviewed spiritual leaders and philosophers worldwide in the movie I AM and asked 2 questions:

Q1: What is wrong with our world? Q2: What can we do about it?

The epiphanies in this movie for me are enormous and some a reminder of what I discovered. However as you read this please know that 95% of people on the planet do not know what Tom and I know. Do you? Science has proven that we are made out of materialization or “Stuff”. If we can’t touch it, we can’t feel it. We honour and teach that we need to be significant at someone else’s expense. The physical nature of human beings, the way our homes are situated in our neighbourhoods and society in general are separated…we have embraced a culture of COMPETITION…you know, separate from the pack, be #1…and we have taught our children the same. We are wired to compete and gratify our own desires. We are primarily “singular individuals” and secondarily “social beings”. This in itself creates a world of separation.

Sound weird? When we eat a sandwich, we can throw the wrapper on the ground as litter. We do not see ourselves connected to the planet as one, we are separate, and that causes behaviours that destroy the world instead of create harmony and growth.

We are taught that Wealth and Happiness are synonymous….you want happiness, you have to own stuff! The message in the media after 911 was to “Go out and shop”. My father was a drunk and very abusive to me physically and mentally…I don’t tell that story any more for personal gain…I tell it only to connect you to a meaning in my life and I love my dad for giving me through his actions the gifts that make me a Hero to others. Dad after hurting me would sober up and bring to my bedside a gift of some kind. He would do that as his remorse and that was how I learned to give love. I lived my life giving stuff to others and not knowing the true way of loving others. Dad was a military commander and the only thing I knew was that I had to be number one at everything I did and that was the way to happiness. Are you seeing the pattern here? It was only later in life and now again after watching “I AM” that I understood why “I AM what’s wrong with the world today”.

When Tom was at the top of his career he acquired million dollar mansions and jets in Hollywood and lived like a King. As he described in the movie, one day he stood in the foyer of his mansion and realized that the more stuff he had, the less happy he was. The culture he grew up in taught him that the house he had was a measure of the good life.

Are you ready for the TRUTH AND LIE about life? Imagine being stranded in a forest with snow all around you, no food and little clothing. You are very unhappy. You come across a log cabin with the light glowing in the window, the smoke billowing from the chimney. In that cabin you find someone who takes you in with love, gives you a blanket, some clean warm clothes and puts soup in your hands while you sit by the fire. BAM! You are now incredibly happy! That’s the truth folks, we can be incredibly happy with very little stuff.

Now the LIE. The more stuff you have the more happier you will become. Folks it is a psychological problem not the reality…having 1 Billion in wealth then doubling it to 2 Billion does not double your happiness. This is why people driven to accumulate and accumulate without asking the question “will this make me happy?” and “why aren’t rich people happy?” will always crash and burn somehow in their lives. This story plays out over and over again. In my life I experienced a total collapse financially because of a financial fraud in 2006…the sad truth and one that is hard for me to acknowledge is that we had it all and kept looking for more and more to create happiness…that led us into a scam that took everything we had and when we look at our life now, living with limited means but free of stress and debt, we are happier than we have ever been. OMG! Add to this the fact that because of the peptides that are created in the brain, people who lose it all will create the same outcome again and again in their lives unless they understand what I have learned in the Master Keys Experience. For our situation to change, we must change my friends.

We have privileged in North America the idea that wealth was the pathway to happiness but the sad reality is that we are always trying to avoid realities in our lives by padding ourselves with stuff. I was unhappy, buy more stuff. I hurt others with my actions, give them more stuff. We start wars, wars between Countries, wars between races, wars between rich and poor over this way of thinking. Somewhere in history we created the rule that the economy is the most important thing in the world. My favourite movie “Wall Street” is one where Gordon Gecko declared “Greed is good”. I remember seeing his speech and cheering him on. That was before I decided to change and realized I need a new reality in my life.

Right about now are you gripped by this blog, or are you wishing it would end because you need to go play with your stuff…lol. Seriously, if you want to hear the rest of the story, see WEEK 19 Blog titled “PART 2: I AM What’s Wrong With The World Today. Ciao for now.

9 thoughts on “MKMMA WEEK 18: I AM What’s Wrong With The World Today”

Great blog! You did a wonderful job articulating the comparison of your life to the movie and making the positive changes to having a more fulfilled and happy life! It is unfortunate that as people we only stop and ponder what life is about only when we are faced with great challenges… On the other hand what a blessing it is to be faced with adversity as it is a time to grow and change and make right what we need in life.

That was a great post Tom. It definitely put things into perspective for me. All my life when I heard you needed more stuff or things to be happy, I would reflect on the people I grew up with in the jungles of southern Mexico. Were we lived there we no roads, stores, or conveniences of city life. So I ask myself were those people happy? Was I happy? YES YES YES proof you do not have to have things to be happy. I wish everyone could have the opportunity to grow up were I did.

Your words of wisdom makes me pause and reflect on when I was most happy . It was when a big cardboard box could be a castle a car or a horse drawn carriage. No it wasn’t over the weekend.:) As a child it sure did not take much to bring happiness to one self. Good times. Wonderfully honest and compelling , Thanks Tom for your reflections on your life to accent the points made in the film.

Hi Tom, I have read both of your beautifully written posts this week. You did a great job of expressing the path that so many of us are on. I love the way that you express that you know that you know this truth and harmony that is so essential to our survival. Thank you for expressing the joys of change!

Very well done, Tom. Thanks for sharing your insights and the personal experiences that feed into them. It is so very interesting how so many people feel if they could just got more ‘stuff’ they’ll finally be happy. They need to read your blog! Thanks!